Defeated school budget reduced by $490,250

Township, borough councils make cuts in capital outlay projects.

By: Dick Brinster
   EAST WINDSOR — The defeated regional school budget was cut by $490,250 Thursday night by the combined councils of the township and Hightstown.
   That reduced the spending measure to $78.7 million and the amount to be raised by taxation to $52.4 million. The money came from capital outlay projects.
   Only one of 12 council members, Hightstown’s Patrick Thompson, voted no, as he said he would before the reviewing process began. The councils were given a month from the defeat of the budget on April 18 to submit an amended spending measure to the county.
   "That is not the devil in the details," Mr. Thompson said of the line items of the budget, then explained why he thought a cut was ridiculous. "If my math is right, the average Hightstown taxpayer will get about a $10 reduction."
   No official estimates were made, but last year a $1 million cut resulted in a decline of 3 cents in the school tax rates of both municipalities. The defeated budget called for an increase of $307 in the school tax bill of a home assessed at the township average of $130,000 and a $179 boost for a home assessed at the borough average of $120,000.
   East Windsor Mayor Janice Mironov rejected any suggestions that the combined councils were not supportive of the school system.
   "The people voted on April 18 and they did vote it no," she said after schoool board members voted unanimnously to accept the verdict. "You may have thought that was not appropriate, you may have felt that it was not just. But that is the way East Windsor Township and Hightstown voted."
   Full details in the Herald on May 26.